Monitor your blood pressure regularly

Buy a home blood pressure kit.A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that home blood pressure testing can provide a better overall picture of blood pressure levels than readings in a doctors surgery. In the study, surgery readings failed to identify 13 percent of patients who had high blood pressure only when measured in the surgery (white-coat hypertension), and 9 percent who had high blood pressure at home but not in the surgery. In addition, a study presented at the 2004 European Society of Hypertension meeting found that people who monitored their blood pressure at home had lower overall blood pressure than those who had their pressure taken only at the doctors surgery.